Home ▻ Research Centres▻College of Science and Engineering▻Nanoscale Biophotonics▻Instrumentation▻General Analytical

General Analytical

Elemental Analysis

We have two systems for elemental analysis, a Microwave Plasma Atomic Emission Spectrometer ( Agilent MP-4200) and an energy dispersive X-Ray Fluorescence (ED-XRF) system.  Both were acquired for the analysis of cell culture media and other materials used in Biopharma manufacturing.

Atomic Emission Spectrometer (Microwave Plasma). In Aug. 2017 we installed a Microwave Plasma Atomic Emission Spectrometer (Agilent MP-4200) and SPS 4 autosampler.  The system is currently being used for bioanalytical research focusing on cell culture media analysis.  
The system operates in a sequential scanning mode and is capable of analyzing most elements down to low ppm. ‌The system operates using a nitrogen  plasma with gas being supplied from an Agilent 4107 Nitrogen Generator.
In 2006 we took delivery of an Oxford Instruments Twin-X benchtop X-Ray fluorescence spectrometer (right above).  
This system was used on the CBAS project to measure the mineral content of organic materials.  XRF is a non-destructive technique which can be used for the analysis of solids, liquids, and thin films. 
The system has dual detectors for light and heavy elements.

  ‌‌

HPLC:

 We have two chromatography systems which are used to support the spectroscopy based research projects.

This is our HPLC (Waters Alliance, donated by Boston Scientific). The HPLC is exclusively used for small molecule quantification to validate methods being developed for Low Content Quantification (LCQ) which was part of our SSPC research activity.  
Agilent 1260 Size Exclusion Chromatography (SEC) system fro protein analysis.

This is our Size Exclusion Chromatography system (Agilent 1260 with Diode Array Detector) used for protein analysis.  We have several different columns available for both Size Exclusion and Hydrophobic Interaction measurements. 

General Analytical

The lab also has a wide array of other general analytical instrumentation.

Dynamic Light Scattering (DLS) System (Zetasizer Nano ZS):
The DLS system is a high performance, two angle particle and molecular size analyzer.  We use this for the routine analysis of proteins, polymers, and aggregates. 


The system was installed in Nov. 2019 and is heavily used for protein and polymer analysis.  

 Dynamic Light Scatter system for particle sizing in the nanometer to micrometer size domain.
Water Activity (AquaLab 4TE):
A  simple and effective method for checking if solid state media samples have been exposed to moisture is to use water activity measurements. 
This non-destructive test method is widely used for food analysis.  
The AquaLab 4TE system we have here operates on a dew point principle with a chilled mirror detector for detecting “free” water in samples.
Osmometer: We have an Osmomat 3000 from Gonotec which was installed in 2017. 
The device measures the total osmolality of any aqueous solution which indicates the concentration of all osmotically active substances (such as salts, dextrose, proteins) per kilogram of water.
The osmolality is specified in mOsmol/kg.
The measurement principle is based on the freezing point depression.
Refractometer:  We have a PTR300 from Index Instruments which was delivered in May 2019.  
This is a 4 decimal place system for measuring refractive index at 589 nm.  It can measure RI over a range from 1.32 to 1.68.  This system will mostly be used for supporting biophysics measurements in the laboratory.